The Studio

Our founding premise is that music should come first. Our innovative space is intended to feel like a single room. With a face to face arrangement, excellent sight lines, and an inspiring ambience, our three room facility also houses one of the finest pianos
in New York City: an immaculately restored, six-foot two-inch, 1926 Mason & Hamlin “AA” grand piano. It is a strong and balanced instrument with excellent dynamics. It has a warm tone without being muddy.

To match our piano's exquisite quality, tone and power, we enlisted the skill of master drum-maker Frank Ascenza. Ascenza designed and built a kit which is versatile and dynamic; it is an exceptional jazz instrument with enough punch and growl to excel in more aggressive musical styles. Together in this room, the piano and drums have proven to be a happy pair.

One of our innovations is that we have disolved the glass wall that separates control room and tracking room. While we are able to isolate instruments in between our rooms, we work seamlessly between several acoustically unique spaces. Artists are often surprised to find themselves tracking in the "control room" and mixing in the "live room". Another innovation is our unique face-to-face arrangement which fosters collaboration, critical listening, and innovation.

Unlike a conventional control room which leaves you staring at the back of an engineer's head, the Doghouse NYC employs a 15 foot screen which can be seen from all three rooms. Headphone feeds between rooms allow artists to adjust their own cue mixes to their liking and the entire system can be operated from almost anywhere in the studio making us flexible and efficient at any task we choose. The Doghouse NYC embodies all that is best about the “one-seater” environment. There is no reason that everyone can't take part in the production process and our setup fosters this ideal.

Grey Room

Our largest room, dubbed simply the "Grey Room", is acoustically neutral and holds the piano and main mixing station. It has a warm, natural sound, and a comfortable feel. It is neither excessively dead nor overly reverberant. Acoustics here can be adjusted for a balance between warm roomy parlor tone or crisp studio clarity. It is a space made by and for musicians. We are proud of the tone and the energy that comes when musicians congregate here.

Brown Room

This room is smaller and less reverberant. It is still big enough for our vintage pump organ and a slew of guitars. Often favored by vocalists it provides an isolated area with great sight lines and none of the claustriphobic qualities of the dreaded “booth”. In fact, it opens out onto to a private 2000 square foot rooftop.

Red Room

Our smallest dedicated space is completely acoustically dead. It is often employed for drums but also makes an excellent voiceover room. It is effectively a giant pillow; cozy, quiet and small, yet it is large enough to contain a drumset, an electric piano and an additional musician.

Outdoor Space

Our rooftop is enormous and it is all ours! We record horn sections against the parallell brick walls or just hang out get some air or make a call. Air and light are a premium in a studio environment and the Doghouse NYC has it in spades.

Behind the Scenes

For music to come first, we have found that technology must be invisible. It must transparently support the creative process. Therefore we have effectively made the computer invisible. No screens separate the composer, the musician, or the client. People should look at and listen to each other, not screens and consoles. There are no obstructions in this space; only couches, chairs and instruments. Music technology should be there when it is needed, but never distracting.

But, behind the scenes lies a powerful recording engine sporting state-of-the-art Digidesign hardware running at sample rates up to 192 kHz, a pristine signal chain and multiple monitoring systems. Several computers run the latest in software such as Protools and Logic on both PC and Macintosh platforms. FTP capability and high speed internet round out the services we offer our clients.